Valley ag industry staring at 'perfect storm' conditions

For those involved in the agriculture industry, a series of events that amount to “a perfect storm” have turned spring and summer into months of uncertainty and challenge as concerns over water mount.

Three years of below average rain and snowfall, combined with recent court decisions centered on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, have left growers scrambling to survive further cuts in water supplies.

In a step that will ultimately reduce urban water usage by 20 percent and opens the door for federal aid, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency on Feb. 27 due to the state’s drought conditions. The drought, according to the governor in his address, is “having a devastating impact on our people, our communities, our economy and our environment.”

Recognized as a private employer, the agriculture industry accounts for approximately 25 percent of all jobs in Tulare County, according to the Tulare County Farm Bureau.

“It’s almost a perfect storm situation. We have low commodity prices, the economic situation and now the uncertainty that the drought has brought,” Tulare County University of California cooperative extension Director Jim Sullins said. “Any one of those things would have made life difficult and now we have all three.”

At the heart of all this turmoil is water.

The measurement, storage and movement of water in California is an industry itself.

The state’s vast agricultural system relies on both surface and groundwater to grow its 400-plus various commodities, 240 of which are produced in Tulare County.

“Some crops that are particularly vulnerable [to drought] are citrus,” Sullins said. “There’s not groundwater available in many of those locations.”

A significant amount of Tulare County’s water depends on supplies pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and delivered through the Friant-Kern Canal as a result of a complex set of water exchanges along the San Joaquin River. Those exchanges are based on water rights that date back to the 1870s but were essential in making possible the Friant water that the county uses today, according to Randy McFarland, a public information consultant for the Friant Water Authority.

The county receives its allocated Central Valley Project water through the Friant-Kern Canal using a two-class contract system.

The first 800,000 acre feet of water is used to fill irrigation and water districts that carry Class 1 contracts. Any water over the initial 800,000 acre feet is used to fill those districts holding Class 2 contracts, McFarland said.

As it now stands, only 25 percent of Class 1 supply is scheduled to be delivered, leaving farmers to rely on more costly alternatives such as using pumps to pull groundwater, letting their fields lie fallow or in some cases having to let already sown crops die.

“The Bureau will be revisiting this water supply declaration due to the recent storm activity,” McFarland said officials will revisit the water supply declaration due to recent storm activity in the Valley.

For many farmers who do not rely on canal water or deliveries, the focus of concern lies east in the Sierra Nevada — the snowpack.

According to Tulare County assistant agricultural commissioner/sealer Bill Appleby, Tulare County is slightly better situated to deal with the drought crises than the state’s other counties due to its location and proximity to the mountains.

Unlike those counties that stretch across the Valley to the arid west side such as Kings, Kern and Fresno, Tulare County is not as dependent on water deliveries because of a fairly reliable water table which is replenished through mountain run off and snow melt.

Yet even the reliability of the water table is no longer certain and is perhaps itself in jeopardy due to the growing numbers of dry years and the fewer wet ones.

“When we overdraft our water table there is a certain amount of subsidence that occurs — the space between the particles where the water exists becomes smaller,” Sullins said. “The holding capacity ultimately diminishes.”

The snowpack level for the central region is currently at 77 percent, according to the most recent Department of Water Resources California Cooperative survey which was released Feb. 23. To make up for previous years of drought conditions, officials estimate that around 120 to 130 percent of the yearly average will be needed this year to bring the water table back to optimal conditions.

Appleby said local farmers are very aware of their water use.

“We have been practicing conservation, such as drip irrigation, for years,” Appleby said.

While water conservation is important, Sullins said if California wants to continue to be a leader in agriculture “some drastic changes to the availability and security of water will need to be made.”

-- Contact Jeff Stowe at 784-5000, Ext. 1046, or jstowe@portervillerecorder.com.